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When the Europeans first discovered the Caribbean, they found beautiful blue seas, sunny climates, sandy beaches and sugar cane. For the next three hundred years Europeans fought each other over these lands while sugar production made both these colonial powers and local plantation owners wealthier than all the famed Inca gold taken from Peru. The native Caribbean populations soon died off because of lack of resistance to foreign diseases, so millions of African slaves were imported (forcefully) to the Caribbean to provide the human capital that was needed to exploit these new lands.
When the British finally let their Caribbean colonial territories choose independence in 1962, they left behind the sunny climates, sandy beaches, and blue seas but little else. The once profitable agriculture production had become an economic anchor of low priced one crop commodity trading for most Caribbean territories. There were few mineral resources to exploit and most Caribbean territories were totally dependent on imported energy sources. The famed British parliamentary government, common law system and financial structure were turned over to the local inhabitants with too little preparation of the human capital needed to operate them properly.
Fifty years has now passed since Caribbean independence. Some territories like the Cayman Islands decided to remain as colonies; the dreams of a Caribbean union never materialized; some Caribbean counties have prospered (Barbados) but most of these small island nations have floundered under the pressure of growing populations and mediocre economic growth. The purpose of this study is to examine how during the last fifty years political and economic policies have impacted the quality of human development within the Caribbean region. Hopefully this analysis will provide insights on a better strategy for human development going forward.
In conducting this analysis the author makes the following assumptions:
- Economies exist to meet the needs of people and to improve the quality of life for members of the society to which the particular economy belongs.
- The economic benefits of development should be distributed broadly among all members of society and not just concentrated in the hands of an elite few.
a. Wealth and economic growth itself is not a sufficient measure of economic success since measures of the positive impact of economic development on all levels of a society is equally critical for sustainable prosperity and general social welfare.
b. In colonial times (1500-1800) Caribbean economic wealth was based on plantation agriculture (sugar) and slavery. While there were significant benefits to the colonizers (UK, France, Dutch, Spanish) and to the plantation owners that economic model was not very beneficial to the vast majority of the inhabitants living in the Caribbean region.
- Sustainable economic growth, real social welfare and general prosperity depends as much or more on the competency, commitment and productivity of the members of the society (human capital) as it does on chance factors like exploitable natural resources, favorable geographic local and special legal advantages.
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University College of the Cayman Islands
Dr. Weishan joined the UCCI Business Studies faculty in January 2007 as a professor of management and in May 2007 was appointed to the Chair of Business Studies. Since joining UCCI, Dr. Weishan has also worked extensively with the development initiatives for the Civil Service College as well as collaborated with the design of the new UCCI master degree program in human resources management. He continues to teach upper level management courses within the Business Studies Department as well as management classes within the Civil Service College.
